Voluntary Carbon Markets: Analysis of Co-benefits of Brazilian Projects

This study presents partial results of a research that aims to examine the co-benefits of sustainable development of the voluntary carbon market in Brazil. Therefore, we carried out exploratory research, document analysis and illustrative case studies, based on the analytical matrix constructed from the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) studies on co-benefits from the regulated carbon market. The results presented showed that two of the four projects had greater advances in promoting sustainable development, contradicting the results of the UNFCCC (2011) and Boyd et al (2009) in their studies on the regulated market. The achieved result confirms the major potential market for voluntary contribution to the sustainable development at the local scale, given greater flexibility and diversity of actors. Moreover, it was found that some co-stimulate other benefits in the local communities where they were developed, besides the more advanced projects that were registered in the International Standards that require the attendance of indicators that go beyond the reduction of greenhouse gases.

本研究呈现了一项旨在探究巴西自愿碳市场（voluntary carbon market）可持续发展协同效益的研究的阶段性成果。据此，本研究基于《联合国气候变化框架公约》（United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC）针对合规碳市场（regulated carbon market）协同效益开展的相关研究构建分析矩阵，并以此为基础开展探索性研究、文献分析与示范性案例研究。本次研究呈现的结果表明，四个项目中有两个在推动可持续发展方面取得了更为显著的进展，这与UNFCCC（2011）及Boyd等人（2009）针对合规碳市场开展的相关研究结论相悖。鉴于参与主体具备更强的灵活性与多样性，本研究结果证实了自愿参与本地尺度可持续发展项目具备巨大的市场潜力。此外，研究还发现，除了已在国际标准完成备案的先进项目（此类项目需满足超出温室气体减排范畴的各项指标要求）外，部分落地项目还能在其所属的本地社区中额外催生其他协同效益。